This invention is directed to a methodology and system for monitoring the use of telecommunications equipment across a network, and in particular, for monitoring and graphically representing usage compliance with vendor and customer rules.
Today's telecommunication systems foster an environment of misinformation, inaccuracies, and complexity that are at best difficult and at worst impossible to manage. Current telecommunications environments are made up of multiple legacy systems that have been patch worked together throughout the years. This has provided an environment where errors and inconsistency are prevalent but difficult to identify and resolve. This enables an environment that lacks controls, management and visibility. Vendors provide application such as AT&T Business Direct®, Sprint FONVIEW®, AT&T Bill Management System®, Sprint PCS EBT®, Nextel Smart CD+®, Verizon PerspectivePlus® and others. These applications provide only basic querying capabilities and do not provide any graphical representation of the network, its uses or mechanisms to establish customer specific business rules and/or parameters. Additionally, they only represent data and information from the specific vendor and do not provide for the integration of data for multiple vendors into a single source.